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Rallycross Championship Battles Go Down To The Wire At Mondello

It will be a case of three into one must go this weekend (Sun 9th March 2008) at Mondello Park, for the final round of the 2007/2008 Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship, organised by the Carlow Car Club. The Supercar, Modified and Stockhatch titles are still up for grabs and in each division three drivers are still in the fight, which should guarantee a day of superb action.

The overall championship can still be won by Dermot Carnegie (Ford Fiesta), Paul Grogan (Subaru Impreza) or George Tracey (Metro 6R4). Carnegie will undoubtedly start the event as favourite to re-claim his crown due to the thirteen point lead he holds over Grogan. The Dublin Rallycross veteran has a further point in hand over traditional title rival Tracey which means he does not need to push for the victory to seal another crown.

Carnegies Fiesta has taken him to two wins this season and with neither of his rivals having won a round he is in an extremely strong position. While lacking the speed and experience to challenge for race wins, the impressive Grogan has picked up speed all season in his Subaru but would probably need a non-finish by Carnegie and Tracey to be in with a shout of an unlikely first title. Former champ Tracey knows what it takes to get to the top step of the podium but has had a poor season by his standards and will probably need to take his first win of the campaign with Carnegie hitting trouble if he is to have any hope of overhauling him.

In the modified division it’s all about the Coyne brothers who fill the top three positions separated by just four points. Willie Coyne with his Nova currently sits on the top of the pile with Brendan’s Fiesta three points adrift and the fastest of the trio, Michael with his Nova, a further point behind. Any of these three could come out on top on Sunday with the points permutations so complicated that all three will have to really go for it in order to come out tops in this long running family rivalry. In the unlikely event of all three hitting problems Mark Carroll is waiting in the wings to take over. He still has an outside chance of becoming champ as do Keith Curran and Chris Grimes.

The budget Stockhatch class again has three main contenders but Michael Duke will start as favourite due to his ten point advantage over English raider Julian Godfrey. Keith Campbell is the only other driver with a mathematical chance of lifting the crown. In the Rallycar Division class 9A is the only one still to be decided with Des Ryan having tied up Class 9 and Andrew Morris 9B. Pat Keogh, Pat Murphy and Jack Deegan are the trio battling it out here.

Qualifying heats to decide the grid positions for Sunday afternoon's finals get underway at 10:00 on Sunday morning with the excitement building towards the finals scheduled to get underway at 15:30.